The family of a British widow killed in a car crash in Ghana, after being conned out of her entire £1million life savings by romance fraudsters, have laid bare how her life dramatically unravelled.
Janet Fordham, 69, was the victim of a ‘sustained fraud’ between 2017 and 2022, before she mysteriously died after travelling to Africa to meet a man called Daniel ‘Kofi’ Anyapong, 52, who claimed he could help her retrieve her money.
Her family had set an online dating profile up for her on Match.com after the deaths of her first husband and a second long-term partner, but she was cruelly targeted by fraudsters – including a man claiming to be a British Army sergeant major.
Kofi said he would help the retired housekeeper get her money back after she was fleeced out of her life savings, leaving her destitute, unable to afford food and living in a caravan at her son’s farmhouse in Devon.
As the fraud escalated at an alarming rate, the widow was withdrawing the maximum £500 a day of cash, had her car seized to stop her going to ATM machines and even sent £140,000 of her family’s money to scammers.
Mrs Fordham’s family desperately tried everything to stop her and detectives spoke to her about allegations of fraud in 2017, 2020 and 2022. But no matter what they tried, police could not investigate further, as Mrs Fordham refused to engage.
In an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail, Mrs Fordham’s son Martin and daughter-in-law Melanie Fordham have today revealed the heartbreaking tragedies she suffered in the years before she was scammed to death.
They revealed how Mrs Fordham was in fact an incredibly ‘shrewd’ woman who had saved a huge fortune for her retirement – including the life insurance from her first husband’s death – but ‘it all went to fraudsters’.
Mrs Fordham’s first tragedy dates back to nearly 50 years ago when her husband, a plumber, was killed while building the family home in Offwell, East Devon.
‘We lost our dad when I was one,’ Martin says. ‘He was digging a well and the earth fell in on top of him and he died.’
Janet Fordham is pictured with her boyfriend Daniel ‘Kofi’ Anyapong in Ghana. He was driving the car when she was killed
This is the wreckage of the Suzuki that Kofi crashed in Ghana, which killed British widow Janet Fordham
Janet Fordham is pictured with her son Martin. She was the victim of ‘sustained fraud’ between 2017 and 2022
It was therefore left to Mrs Fordham to raise Martin and his sister, and they moved to Honiton.
‘Mum brought my sister and I up together,’ Martin, who is now a farrier, says. ‘She had two jobs in order to pay for horses.
‘She worked really hard, six or seven days per week. She never remarried but moved in with another partner Gerald, who she was with for 20 years, but he sadly got dementia.
‘She was caring for him from around 2014 and looked after him until the end.’
Melanie, a childminder, explains that this was a key moment in Mrs Fordham’s life.
‘That’s what triggered all of this really,’ she says. ‘He became aggressive and his care was incredibly difficult.
‘Then, when she was out of the country for our wedding, his adult children changed the locks, bagged up her stuff and threw her out even though his will said she could stay at the house until she died or met somebody else.
‘She had some land near Martin’s sister Julie outside Honiton and lived in a caravan but I don’t think she ever really got over that.
‘He died soon after but she wasn’t allowed contact with him because of the children.’
Martin and Melanie were determined to get Mrs Fordham back on track. ‘She was lonely so we helped her set up an account on Match.com,’ Melanie reveals.
‘It feels terrible that we helped her set it up, she was in her early 60s and lonely.’
Another relationship with a man called Mike didn’t stick, as she worked full-time as a housekeeper for extremely wealthy companies and he was retired.
‘She worked for years and earned bloody good money doing it,’ Melanie says, describing how she would pick up families’ children up from school, look after their dogs, do their shopping and cook their meals.
They admit it might be hard to believe, but describe Mrs Fordham as a ‘very shrewd woman’, revealing how she sold her home when she moved in with Gerald and saved huge amounts on top of the insurance money from her first husband’s death.
‘But it all went to fraudsters,’ Melanie says.
Mrs Fordham was initially scammed by a man she met on a dating website in 2017, who claimed to be a British Army sergeant major working in Syria.
He told her he had acquired gold bars and needed her help in getting them back in the UK. She sent him around £150,000 but later realised it was a scam and reported it to police.
‘He was retiring soon to return to the UK. She said they were in love and they were going to buy a house together,’ Melanie said at Mrs Fordham’s inquest at Devon Coroner’s Court this week.
‘Janet mentioned nothing about any money at that point, but I remember candidly saying to her that it all seemed a little unbelievable, and the next thing he would be asking for money.
Martin and Melanie Fordham pictured with Mrs Fordham before her death
‘I told her categorically not to send him any. Janet had been sending money to him, but we didn’t find out about this until years later. I believe she gave him around £150,000.’
The widow later learned she had been further defrauded by a ‘diplomat’ after her UK bank accounts were frozen.
‘How it escalated from there we won’t ever know because she wasn’t forthcoming with us once she knew what we thought,’ Melanie says.
Martin adds: ‘She knew she was being scammed but didn’t want to admit it, she was a really stubborn woman.’
In 2018, Mrs Fordham was then contacted by a man called Kofi on WhatsApp, who claimed he was a doctor in Ghana working part-time in a friend’s mobile phone repair shop.
Kofi told her he believed she was being scammed and said he would help her get her money back after she was fleeced out of her life savings.
In what would prove to be a heartbreaking warning, Martin tells the Daily Mail: ‘Before she went I said “if you get on that plane I’ll never see you again”, I felt she was going to get knocked over the head trying to get her money back but she said “I’ve got no other choice”.
‘We were trying to shock her into understanding but she was so blinkered.’
But Mrs Fordham ignored her son’s advice and flew to Accra in October 2022. She became romantically involved with Kofi, agreeing to marry the man, who was 17 years her junior.
But on February 14, 2023, while Kofi was driving them to meet a family member to discuss the marriage, his Suzuki Altos swerved off the road and somersaulted before crashing into a tree.
Mrs Fordham, who was not wearing a seat belt, was rushed to hospital but died from head injuries. Kofi, who walked away with minor injuries, admitted driving offences and escaped with a fine.
At her inquest this week, Philip Spinney, senior coroner for Devon, Plymouth and Torbay, recorded a narrative conclusion, meaning he opted not to say whether her death was suspicious or an accident, but said it was ‘probably’ due to the car crash.
But the family told the Daily Mail there are numerous glaring holes in the Ghanaian investigation, and they are convinced she was killed and the murder was covered up by corrupt officers.
Melanie said: ‘We believe she was killed. She was murdered. Everything points to that.’
Martin only discovered her mother was dead after Kofi sent him a video of the car crash wreckage on February 14, 2023.
He then proceeded to send her three distressing videos showing her laying unconscious on a hospital bed with doctors performing CPR, her dead body on a mortuary table and then in a mortuary drawer.
Mrs Fordham’s family desperately tried everything to stop the scams, while detectives spoke to her about allegations of fraud in 2017, 2020 and 2022
Along with the videos, Kofi requested £10,000 to cover hospital fees.
Martin said: ‘I’m not sure what he was thinking when he sent it or what it was to bloody do. Was it to prove she’s there and he was trying to get her care?
‘I don’t know what went through my mind seeing the video, it was such a shock I just put the phone down.’
His wife said: ‘She was dead in a morgue and all they could think about was money… Why was that necessary to send? How was Kofi able to film that?
She added: ‘Kofi used her phone and started contacting her brother too, asking him to send money, even right to the end he was trying to squeeze every last penny out of us.’
The family are adamant that Mrs Fordham did not die in the car crash and are demanding answers.
Melanie explained: ‘After the autopsy, they kept a quarter of her brain, the only bit that could definitely tell us how she died.
‘The British pathologist said she had severe head injuries but the thing that killed her was a blow to the back of the head that wasn’t normal in a car crash.
‘It was something small she was hit with, nothing in the car would do that damage.’
The family claim the police reports were ‘inconsistent’ and that they initially investigated it as a murder investigation before they ‘suddenly changed their minds’.
She added: ‘It’s institutional corruption, if it’s completely innocent why didn’t she come back whole? Why keep the segment of skull and brain we needed to understand why she died?
‘The Ghanaian authorities won’t talk to the pathologists here, they refuse to answer questions. That’s guilty.’
Devon and Cornwall Police concluded there was no evidence of any third-party involvement in Mrs Fordham’s death.
Police spoke to Mrs Fordham about Kofi, but officers could not further the investigation due to her lack of engagement.
The court heard Melanie contacted police again because her mother-in-law was continuing to transfer money abroad using bitcoin and ATMs.
‘Whether she was in so deep, she couldn’t accept it was all gone, she had to keep piling money in the hope of getting something back,’ she said.
‘Whether she genuinely believed what she was being told, we will never know.’
She also borrowed money from other family members, which totalled around £140,000, and was also in arrears on loans and credit cards.
‘Janet wouldn’t tell us much, so we started opening some of her mail and discovered that she had cashed in a chunk of her pension,’ Melanie said.
‘She was withdrawing the maximum £500 a day, we believe to stockpile, and then transferred cash as the banks had stopped her doing electronic transfers.
‘I was very aware that we don’t know everything and there is probably a whole lot more.’
‘As a family, we tried everything to stop her, but she was adamant,’ her daughter-in-law added.
‘I spoke to her doctor, sought legal advice, but because she was of sound mind, albeit brainwashed, she was deemed to have capacity and there was nothing we could do.’
Neighbours this week told the Daily Mail they were heartbroken to hear about how Mrs Fordham’s life ended.
One elderly neighbour said: ‘It is terrible. She was always very pleasant. It’s a tiny little village but I guess you don’t know what’s going on. Aren’t there some horrible people in the world to target her?
‘They’re a really lovely family.’
Another neighbour and family friend said: ‘Janet very much kept herself to herself. I would see her in the car and you’d wave and say hi. She was living in Martin and Melanie’s caravan but Martin wouldn’t speak about it.
‘We know Martin and Melanie. But it’s a tiny village but because everyone drives everywhere you don’t speak to people that much.’
At the time of travelling to Ghana, the retired housekeeper was living in a caravan at the home of her son Martin (pictured with Janet) in Honiton, Devon
Detective Sergeant Smith said on the day she died, Mrs Fordham and Kofi were driving from Accra to the Oti region ‘to get approval from a family member for marriage’.
Mrs Fordham suffered fatal injuries in the crash. Mr Spinney, senior coroner for Devon, Plymouth and Torbay, recorded a narrative conclusion.
‘The evidence shows that Janet Fordham lost a considerable amount of money between 2017 and 2022,’ he said.
‘The true figure is not known, but it’s believed to be between £800,000 and £1million.
‘Devon and Cornwall Police investigated these matters, although I should point out that Janet herself did not ever make a formal complaint to the police, nor did she co-operate fully with the police investigation.
‘In October 2022, she travelled to Ghana to meet a man named Kofi. He had agreed to help her try and recover some of the money.
‘The family believed that she also went for romantic reasons. Indeed, it’s believed that she planned to marry Kofi.’
He added: ‘I conclude that Janet Fordham died as a consequence of a head injury that was probably sustained in a road traffic collision.’